The digital marketing strategy aims to position V as the coolest energy brand facilitating unexpected social experiences among 18-24 year olds. It will create an online platform called "The V Energy Dream Machine" that synchronizes users' social media and plans with friends' to generate new social opportunities. Running social media campaigns around user-generated photos and check-ins will drive traffic to the site and brand awareness. The majority of the $1 million budget will fund online ad placements with some spent on developing the platform and campaign content.

2. The brief requires an digital marketing strategy that effectively taps into the emergence of new platforms,
technologies and applications that facilitate people’s ability to make social connections.
It needs to generate hype and conversation around its innovation, whilst positioning V as the coolest energy
brand that is the catalyst of unexpected and memorable social experiences.
Duration:
One year
Budget:
$1,000,000
Target Audience:
18 – 24 year old energy seekers

3. The energy drink market has grown from 1.1% to 13.7% of the total
beverage market over the past ten years, accounting for approximately
$500 Million in yearly sales.
V has a 53% of market share in Australia with Red Bull as the major
competitor holding 41% of market share.
Despite a consistent growth in volume sold since 2001, the energy drink
market has seen a stall in revenue growth in 2011*.
* Source: Nielsen Topline Review, August 2011

4. In 2011, V spent $6,367,000 on advertising across the board, with only 5% of that
($321K) online*.
The plateau in 2011 sales can be linked back to limited new information being
communicated about energy drinks to the public.
Where energy drinks were once a new and exciting product, they are now everyday
products. This is reflected by an 84% growth in the grocery sales category over the
past year**.
The need for advertising stems from the image of the energy drink brand in general,
and to continue revenue growth V must position itself as still being a cutting edge
product that is growing in interest and innovation with the times.
* Source: Adquest Millennium July 2010 – June 2011
** Source: Nielsen Topline Review, August 2011

5. • Create interest for the brand and what it offers consumers
• Inspire people within the target audience to interact with
the brand in a positive manner
• Motivate purchase intent through the activity surrounding
the brand
• Shift the perception of the brand amongst 18 – 24 year
old energy seekers to becoming the facilitator of fun, social
and memorable experiences

6. After much comprehensive research into the target audience of 18 – 24 year old energy seekers that included living
as one of the people in questions for six years up until five and a half moths ago, and climaxing in seventy-five
surveys to gain a genuine insight into the category (yes, I was ‘that guy’ up the back of the Big Day Out with a
clipboard and pen), I had an epiphany into what this stage of life is all about:
• Life from 18 – 24 is all about beginnings and endings
- They end high school, they begin university, they begin their first serious relationship, the end their
first serious relationship, the end their university degree, the begin their career, they have their first
existential crisis and they end their career, they begin traveling, they end their travels, they turn 25.
• The other insight that came out of the research is that they will often start on a path (whether career, uni, travel,
etc.) without any clear plan of where it will lead them. They just start it because it’s what they want to do!
• There is one overwhelming constant that remains unchanged throughout all of these crazy times: they always
make time to have fun with their friends.

7. With the above insight in mind, V will run multiple online campaigns Buy the ticket.
around the theme of starting amazing adventures / social experiences
without any clear direction of where they will take you.
The one constant across the experiences is that they will be social,
and you will take friends with you as well as meet new ones along the
way! Take the ride
The rationale behind this is that if your audience can feel an It all starts with V
emotional, even nostalgic connection with the brand, they will have
the brand in mind when engaging in behaviour indicative of the V
Social campaign.
This campaign aligns with V’s current slogan: It all starts with V, only it
is now being taken the a new level for 2012, adding: …But where will
But where will it end?
it end?

8. Imagine that you fit the above profile and psyche of an energy-seeking 18 – 24 year old.
Imagine if there was a way to align all of your social activities, interests, friends and upcoming plans into the one
simple, synchronized schedule that fitted around whatever you want to do, wherever you wanted to be, and with
whoever you wanted to do it with.
Or even better, a system that creates all of your upcoming plans (whether social, business, travel, etc.) around your
own interests, schedule, personality, friends, location and wealth, without you needing to make any effort of your
own. A system that takes all the above factors into account and generates the perfect recommendation of what you
are doing with your life in the crazily busy, constantly changing, upcoming months.
If such a platform existed, you would never need to worry about missing a social opportunity. You would just need
to be prepared to seize them!
V could be the facilitator of this social processor. Best of all, it is ran entirely with the sole purpose of achieving V’s
marketing objectives of interaction, interest, purchase intent and a brand perception shift. PRESENTING…..

9. THE V ENERGY DREAM MACHINE
(or alternatively something less cheesy)
This is a micro site that calibrates all of the information from a user’s relevant social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
Google+, Tumblr, etc.) as well as all relevant information that they submit to the site itself (upcoming travel plans, industry
category of work, festivals to attend, favourite console games, etc.) with the information and plans of all their friends across the
social platforms.
The site is embedded with a timeline of upcoming events that synchronizes the relevant information of all of their friends who
align with their plans and generates a ‘social calendar’ that filters the awesome adventures and social experiences that they
have the opportunity to begin.
The user journey is as simple as landing on the site, submitting as much or as little information as they’d like, linking how ever
many social networks they’d like, and generating awesome upcoming social experiences as far ahead as they wish to plan.
Want to know a cool adventure to start today? No worries, it will be generated. Want to know a cool adventure to embark on in
the next week, month, year? V will tell them where to begin it. They simply decide where it goes.

10. The V
Energy
+ Dream
Machine
Personal
Information
By submitting their
User chooses what The information synchronizes The user now has the
information and interacting
information about with that of their friends, V opportunity to
with friends in this
themselves to input supported events, any other connect with their
environment, V puts them in
into the micro site for major events that are of friends who have been
the running to win a prize
the benefit of creating interest to them and included in their
that aligns with their own
a holistic profile of calibrates their social results to begin an
(and the brand’s) interests
themselves experiences accordingly adventure with

11. Why 18 – 24 year old energy seekers will use this product
This branded micro site is something they will actually use because it has a practical value to them. They are
able to sync their social life and generate ideas for what events and experiences could come up for them in the
future.
The competition aspect is the final hook, where by interacting with the site, they have the opportunity to win a
prize that aligns with their wants:
- Travel overseas with their friends
- Attend their music festival of choice with their friends
- Win a console and home theatre system to play it on with their friends
- Start a business venture with their friends
Why it will prove effective for V
This whole user experience is designed to have the target audience spending time with the V brand, and
aligning the brand with their own view of life that has been highlighted in my audience insight. On top of the
emotional connection and brand affinity, the site acts as a massive data capture of consumer information that
lives long after the campaign.

12. Social Photo Commentary Competition It all starts with V…
To align with social media and driving people to the target site,
one approach is to create a viral photo commentary campaign
through all social media platforms.
It would revolve around V uploading a photo of something
exciting starting, and asking people to answer the simple
question of “Where will it end?”
People comment on the picture in question and the winner is …Where will it end?
rewarded with a prize aligning with the V brand (5 tickets to a
Submit comments below:
music festival, brand new Playstation or Xbox, etc.)
-
-
-

13. Facebook check-ins for discounts
In order to keep the online conversation around V, there is an opportunity
within Facebook to generate updates through the ‘check-in’ function.
Facebook is the ideal platform for this campaign as it is the most populated
website in Australia with 10,682,000 monthly active users and 971,000* of
them within the target audience of 18-24 year olds engaged with social
media.
By aligning with the strength in the petrol and convenience store channels,
V could run a campaign across 7-11 or another store that when people
check-in on Facebook, they receive a 20% discount off a can of V.
* Source: Nielsen Answers, January 2012

14. Facebook Network
To create awareness of the V Social campaign, running standard Facebook ads to drive traffic to the site as well as
V Australia fan page can be targeted to reach on the right target audience.
YouTube Takeover
Males 18 – 24 are the biggest consumers of video on the internet, and account for 678,000 of the total audience
of 8,684,000 on YouTube per month*. A complete homepage buyout accompanied by the latest TVC to kick off
this campaign would drive traffic and awareness for V.
Console Gaming Network
Console gaming is almost exclusive to males within V’s target audience and has an aligned interest with the V
product already. Advertising within the PlayStation and Xbox networks can include standard in-game banners as
well as takeovers of the Network Home screens that can click through to the V micro site.
Social Gaming Networks
This is a rapidly growing market that allows V do run more than standard creative, and have deeper interactive
experiences with an openly social and receptive audience that can be targeted by their social network user ID’s.
* Source: Nielsen Answers, January 2012

15. Revenue Split
To make the campaign successful with a balance of development costs and
traffic driving, reach & awareness costs, a 80 / 20 split of visible ads /
development and content creation costs should be implemented.
Breakdown for the next 12 months
Dev + Content creation:
$120K – Development cost of The V Energy Dream Machine micro site
$40K – Ongoing costs of maintaining and improving the micro site
$40K – Production cost of video + banners for the campaign
Visible ads:
$800K into digital placements in appropriate environments
Total = $1,000,000

16. It all starts with V…
…But where will it end?